


The Sacrifices We Make

by yunhaiiro



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Canon Queer Character, Gen, M/M, Pining, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 05:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10530063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunhaiiro/pseuds/yunhaiiro
Summary: Spoilers for the finale.Silver has never actually tried anything.Because he's afraid Flint will punch him. Or kill him. Or both.





	

Silver has never actually tried anything.  
Because he's afraid Flint will punch him. Or kill him. Or both.

At first, he wouldn't even dare think about it, because the man legitimately scared him. His ruthlessness was known, and he had actually witnessed it first-hand. A man like that, you didn't fuck with. In any sense of the word.

Things started to change, little by little. Silver started seeing more and more of the person, less of the façade he put up. And what he saw... He soon started to feel like it wasn't enough. He craved those interactions, the conversations that were both a battle of wits and elegant dances, each trying to out-smart the other. Every little revelation a new tiny piece of the puzzle.

He was hooked. He needed it. It always made him feel like the world was suddenly the two of them, alone, nothing and no-one else being of any importance.

(Even though there was actually _a lot_ going on at any given time).

But even if he had tried to fool himself into thinking this was a mere intellectual pursuit... He knew he was lying to himself, just as much as he lied to everyone else.

Silver has never actually tried anything.  
Because he's afraid Flint will punch him. Or kill him. Or both.

He hasn't tried anything, even though there have been moments when it seemed like the only possible course of action. After a heated argument. After a particularly startling glimpse into Flint's mind.

After seeing him look at Silver with that crooked smile, eyes impossibly clear. After inconspicuously looking away because he had been staring for way too much time. After seeing him covered in blood and thinking how much he'd like to rip his clothes off and scrub him raw, until he can count each freckle again.

But the moments pass, and Silver never tries anything.

The day he realizes he's in too deep, he just makes up a new excuse. They're friends now. Close as close can be. Their trust is mutual, tangible, and (he hopes) unbreakable. Flint wouldn't kill him (he might still punch him, though). But Silver would be doing their friendship a disservice. And now that he finally has it, he never wants to lose it.

So if he stared at Flint's newly shaved head, and his eyes wandered down to his nape, and he imagined what it would be like to kiss it, or even bite into it, Flint's head arching back and letting out a low moan...  
It still meant nothing.  
Flint was off-limits. Not one for such proclivities. And that was just how it was.

And then Flint tells him about Thomas Hamilton, and Long John Silver finds himself out of fucking excuses to hush that hunger inside him.

He turns this information over and over in his head. Tries to add it to everything else he already knows about Flint. The one missing piece of the puzzle.  
It fits, but it suddenly changes the whole picture.

Now everything Silver does, he's second-guessing. He can no longer tell himself that the things he sees, the signs he swears Flint is making, is just him projecting them onto him. It could be true. It could be...

Silver never actually tries anything.  
Because he's a fucking coward.

And then... Madi.

He can't lie to himself. She is so much like Flint. But a softer Flint. One with more purpose and less self-destruction. Safer, in a way. Which fucking says something about him, because he's never gone for the safer alternative in all his life. But now... After everything that's happened...  
Maybe a stable life and a tangible future are not only the safest bet, but the only good one.  
And he's not giving up anything. He's not settling for something less. He genuinely loves Madi. He knows as soon as she is in danger that he will literally burn the whole world to the ground if something happens to her.

Now he really sees what being Flint is like.

It's a nightmare.

And Silver still loves him enough to want to save him.

He found Thomas Hamilton. Back then, he even had the gall to tell himself that he is a bargaining chip. A way of having the upper hand over Flint, always.

But who is he fucking kidding.

He raises the gun and trains it on Flint's chest. Flint face goes through twenty different emotions in a split second. Silver talks and it only sounds like he's choking back a sob.

"Thomas Hamilton is alive".

Silver knew this was the only way to stop the war for good. He also knew Flint was right when he said Madi wouldn't forgive him.  
Silver does hope that she will, in time.  
But he's not doing this for her. Or their future. Not really. That will be a nice after-effect.

Silver has told many stories in his lifetime. Spun tales from nothing, made up whole worlds in a moment.  
But telling stories was easy. Making things happen, now that was an art. And he was an artist.  
And God damn it if he wouldn't do anything in his power to give a person he loved the fucking happy ending he so much deserved.

Silver never actually tried anything. He never grabbed Flint by the collar, never lunged into a searing kiss, never pushed him against a table and sneaked a knee between his legs.

But it was just as well. If he was honest with himself, Silver knew they would have just torn each other apart, sooner than later.

But he could do this for him. Unmake him, unmake the cursed ghost he had become, unable to shed the grief of so much loss. No more Captain Flint.

No more James McGraw, either. Just a man, with no name, no legend attached, right next to the man he had loved from what seemed so long ago. The one for which he had wanted to burn a whole civilization. The one he almost drowned himself over.

Just as Silver knew he was leaving a part of himself with Flint, so too he knew (he hoped) Flint would always have a part of Silver with him.

Now they would both (or, really, the four of them) have their happy endings.

And all of it, finally, had been worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> I still can't believe Flint got a canon gay happy ending, guys.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [No heart, no soul, no man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10542531) by [Miss_Black91](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Black91/pseuds/Miss_Black91)




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